Context: Primary bilateral macronodular adrenal hyperplasia (BMAH) is a rare form of adrenal Cushing syndrome conventionally treated with adrenalectomy. Medical treatment is often reserved for patients not eligible for surgery. However, to date there have been few studies about the efficacy of mifepristone for the treatment of BMAH associated with hypercortisolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe era of interferon-free antiviral treatments for hepatitis C virus infection has arrived. With increasing numbers of approved antivirals, evaluating all parameters that may influence response is necessary to choose optimal combinations for treatment success. Targeting NS5A has become integral in antiviral combinations in clinical development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of liver disease. The molecular machinery of HCV assembly and particle release remains obscure. A better understanding of the assembly events might reveal new potential antiviral strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatitis C virus (HCV) is the main agent of acute and chronic liver diseases leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The current standard therapy has limited efficacy and serious side effects. Thus, the development of alternate therapies is of tremendous importance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnwanted proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are exported into the cytoplasm and degraded by the proteasome through the ER-associated protein degradation pathway (ERAD). Disturbances in ERAD are linked to ER stress, which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several human diseases. However, the composition and organization of ERAD complexes in human cells is still poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuntington's disease (HD) is caused by an expansion of a CAG trinucleotide sequence that encodes a polyglutamine tract in the huntingtin (Htt) protein. Expansion of the polyglutamine tract above 35 repeats causes disease, with the age of onset inversely related to the degree of expansion above this number. Growing evidence suggests that mitochondrial function is compromised during HD pathogenesis, but how this occurs is not understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tracts are associated with the induction of protein aggregation and cause cytotoxicity in nine different neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we report that ubiquilin suppresses polyQ-induced protein aggregation and toxicity in cells and in an animal model of Huntington's disease. Overexpression of ubiquilin in HeLa cells and primary neurons reduced aggregation of polyQ-containing proteins and cell death induced by overexpression of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-huntingtin fusion protein containing 74 polyQ repeats [GFP-Htt(Q74)], in a dose-dependent manner.
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